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Posted by M. Theresa on January 06, 2001 at 19:48:08:
I always read this forum even though I do not have an iguana now, and I love these beautiful animals. About 8 years ago my family and I had a heartbreaking experience with an iguana. I was really young at the time, but my parents loved animals, my father reptiles in particular, and had taught me about them since I was a little child. At one point, we decided we wanted an igauana, knowing how big they got and how long they lived. And it was going to be a family thing, not like an impulse buy for little me at the time. We did months and months of research on them, we owned almost every book we could find on them. Finally, when we understood their special lighting, heating, and nutritional requirements, we finally purchased a very young baby iguana. It looked healthy, and was a beautiful light green with bluish accents. We made sure our temperatures were perfect, we had all the special lighting, and provided it with fresh water and salads which were nutritionally optimal. I've been reading this forum for a while now, and everything that has been recommended, we did. However, our iguana didn't succumb to MBD or anything like that. It didn't have any nutritional deficiencies from what it ate because, simply, it wouldn't eat. We couldn't figure it out, and we had no vet in the area who knew anything about reptiles (nor do we now even), and we knew of no resources like this forum at the time. We grew increasingly concerned by its refusal to eat the fresh and appropriate foods it was offered each day (this was no iceberg lettuce in a 10 gallon situation). It had collards, dandelion greens and a plethora of of fresh items which have been identified on this forum as appropriate for their CA-P ratio, as identified from our pre-purchase research. Eventually, we regretfully resorted to force-feeding (which I hate to do. I have ball pythons now which are thankfully voracious eaters but I would only force feed an animal as a last resort). And in this situation it was a last resort. We did this for a while, and it only barely nibbled on its own. It went downhill very quickly after that and we were very upset when it died. We felt like we did everything that we could, and that we met all of its needs. Why did this happen? Was it just an import that was not destined to make it, or what did we do wrong? Even though I still really love these animals, I don't think I will ever own an iguana because I'm terrified of this happening again. I've always felt horrible and guilty about this. It bothers me when I hear about people who impulse buy iguanas or want to "keep them in a small aquarium because they won't outgrow it" or that it just eats iceberg lettuce. We knew otherwise, and we acted in accordance with its needs and it just didn't work. Please, someone tell me why?
Sincerely,
M. Theresa
